U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,749 to Arbues discloses a ratchet and pawl construction which is useful in a cargo restraint system employing a winch and a cargo strap to secure the cargo in place on a flatbed truck. The ratchet wheel and pawl have teeth which are located in offset planes and staggered so that the forces that are applied during service are distributed among different teeth which are offset linearly and situated in different planes. This type of ratchet and pawl mechanism exhibits enhanced structural integrity of the mechanical parts and minimizes the failure of the teeth on the ratchet wheel and pawl.
However, one problem that has been encountered is that the tip of the pawl provides only a small area for gripping with the finger in order to release the pawl from the ratchet wheel. Release of the pawl requires this small tip to be squeezed between the thumb and forefinger and pulled in a direction to pivot the pawl out of engagement with the ratchet wheel. The tip surfaces which are gripped are in the same plane that the pivotal movement of the pawl takes place, so the fingers can easily slip along the tip of the pawl. This problem can make it difficult to release the pawl, especially because the winch is typically tightened with considerable force to assure that the cargo is properly restrained. Thus, a relatively large force must normally be overcome in order to release the pawl from the ratchet wheel.